Baby you're a Firework - Champagne Mousse cake with Strawberries

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2017!!!

Again an other year has passed.....I can't believe how fast these years go by. It feels the older I get...the faster. And still I feel like I'm only 25 :D

New Year's night will be full of Champagne, Glitter and Fireworks....
I didn't have plans for New years but I did know that my new year would still have to contain Glitter and Sparks. So I decided on putting on some glitter 'cause girl loves a bit of glitter in her eyes....

I got inspired by all the talk of fireworks so I thought why not make a cake suitable for the occasion. How about a cake with Glitter, popping candy, woven sugar, Champagne and strawberries....well that's what I made :)

This Cake is on fireeeee (the tune of girl is on fire :D)

To make the cake:

125g room tempered butter
3 1/2dl sugar
2 tsp vanilla sugar
8 dl all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
2 1/2 dl milk (I used 3,5%)
3 big egg whites
pink pasta or gel color

1)Heat the oven to 175°C
2)Butter 3 baking forms 15cm in diameter and cover with some flour to stop the cake from sticking
3)whisk butter, sugar and vanilla sugar until it's white and fluffy
4)mix flour and baking powder in a bowl
5) add the milk and flour mixture in turns to the butter mixture until even and smooth
6) whisk the egg whites until firm
7)fold in the egg whites to the batter
8)share the batter into 3 different bowls and add food colouring to two of them, one lighter than the other.
9) bake in the oven for approximately 30 min or until they have cooked through not sticking to a toothpick

Champagne mousse:
4 sheets of gelatine
300g of Italian meringue (recipe below)
1,7dl champagne
5 dl whipped cream

1)place the gelatine sheets into cold water to make them soft
2)Prepare the italian meringue as below (unless you happen to have some in the freezer)
3)Heat up the champagne and add the gelatine until dissolved and let it cool until 37°C
4)Mix the champagne into the meringue and slowly fold in the lightly whipped cream.

Assembling the cake:
1)Cut the cake until evenly flat and round  (mine were a bit misshaped :D )
2)add a bit of milk or juice to the cake so its not too dry
3)add sliced strawberries over the first layer and top with champagne mousse
4)add the second layer and repeat
5)cover the whole cake with the mousse.

I was hoping to make the cake only covered with mousse but it didn't turn out so even....so I may have to improve that in the future....but for now I covered mine with white fondant or sugar paste.

How to make the Italian Meringue (this should make a bit extra):
3 dl sugar + 3 tbsp of water to make the sugar syrup
6 egg whites
Cook the water and sugar until 121°C
Whisk the egg whites in a food processor or using an electrical whisk and add the sugar syrup when it's 110-115°C

Spun Sugar:
1 dl sugar
1 tbsp glucose
0,5 dl water

Cook all the ingredients until they are 160°C. Have a bowl of cold water next to it with a brush so that you can brush off any sugar crystals that can ruin the whole caramel.
Once it's reached 160 degrees put it aside. Prepare 2 pins or handles or sticks 30cm apart from each other. Use two forks with their backsides towards each other  or a whisk and quickly splash over the pins creating a spider web like sugar web. Watch out so you don't splash everywhere....the sugars not nice to remove from walls and also it doesn't feel nice when you step on some needle sharp sugar...Ouch!


To Decorate

I had some Strawberries dipped in white chocolate
marshmallows and spun sugar(which is the fun but messy part)
I also added silver edible glitter and popping candy and to top it all up some fire sparks :)